As if a lie, the stone that had been pressing heavily against his chest suddenly disappeared. Lee Young-jin wanted to pat his chest. He was so relieved that his breathing almost stopped.
Ji Jung-hoon was unharmed. Park Eun-young…
“Would you like something to drink?”
The man asked again.
Lee Young-jin stared at him suspiciously. The man strode towards the bar, ignoring the suspicious look. He bent over and pulled out a tall glass bottle from the refrigerator inside the bar. The sound of water sloshing inside the bottle was heard. Soon, a glass was pushed in front of Lee Young-jin’s eyes. The chill fogged up the glass as the cold water, slightly bubbling, was poured inside. Lee Young-jin felt intense thirst. The man must have noticed and put the glass up to his lips.
Lee Young-jin tilted his head back slightly.
Did he put a truth serum in it?
But at that moment, the man opened his mouth.
“I didn’t put anything like a truth serum. You don’t have anything I want to know anyway.”
His body flinched in embarrassment at having his mind read. With that, his thick lips touched the glass. His lips pressed slightly and the man tilted the glass. His mouth opened on its own, and water flowed out. Don’t drink the water the enemy gives you! Contrary to such logic, his instinctive thirst made his throat swallow and suck in the water that seeped into his lips.
“I was sure you knew nothing.”
The man tilted the glass and whispered slowly.
The low, heavy sound made Lee Young-jin’s shoulders tremble and his shoulder blades tighten. Water droplets he couldn’t swallow flowed down his soft lower lip, pooled at the tip of his chin and then ran down his white neck.
The glass was removed from his lips. A soft handkerchief touched his neck. It was a cleanly folded silk handkerchief. The handkerchief swiped once from the nape of Lee Young-jin’s neck to the beginning of his collarbone, then fell off.
The man put his handkerchief back into his vest pocket and quietly opened his mouth.
“You don’t even know what you’re trying to steal.”
“It wasn’t stolen. We’re going to retrieve the item…”
“Keep talking.”
The man interrupted him as if he was having fun. Contrary to the gentle upward movement of the corners of his mouth, his achromatic eyes sank coolly. Lee Young-jin immediately shut his mouth. The air thickened. The man with a strange smile on his lips said briefly.
“That’s mine.”
Lee Young-jin didn’t answer.
It was obviously a lie anyway.
There’s no reason to threaten Lee Young-jin to open the safe and have armed agents break into the safe when he can confidently go to the bank and open the safe if it’s his.
Lie.
It was evident in his facial expression and eyes.
The man laughed dryly.
“It doesn’t feel good to be treated as a liar by a thief.”
The thief was talking as if he wasn’t a thief. Lee Young-jin’s eyes twitched. He struggled to open his mouth, recalling all the worst things silence could bring during an interrogation.
“It’s not a lie. Just…it’s just hard to believe what you say. If it’s really yours, then why…”
“Why did I sneak in like a rat and snatch the item while you were trying to get it out?”
The man who cut Lee Young-jin’s words halfway closed his eyes and smiled. Lee Young-jin stopped breathing and talking at the same time.
“I didn’t say that.”
The man bent down and brought his face closer to Lee Young-jin, and Lee Young-jin kept his mouth shut. The man’s cool breath touched Lee Young-jin’s ear lobe. From there, goose bumps broke out and spread all over his body.
“That’s mine. I won the bid at the auction. Ten minutes before you guys snuck into the vault like rats.”
“But the auction started…”
“9:30.”
A low whisper in his ear.
“And I was the only bidder.”
There was only one bidder? BUt there’s obviously nine participants in the auction… Then the man stretched his back and took about two steps away from Lee Young-jin. He had a mischievous face, as if playing a prank.
“You’re not underage, are you? I don’t know who your Teacher is, but I hope he’s not that trashy.”
Lee Young-jin didn’t know what to say anymore or how to answer so he finally kept his mouth shut. The man with his arms crossed looked down at his silent face. Even the gaze he was barely holding up fell downward as he lost the courage and will to look at the man’s face any longer. However, the man continued and he immediately raised his head again.
“Jason Lee, 21 years old.”
A navy blue passport was held in the man’s hand. He unfolded it towards Lee Young-jin. A page with age, gender, and name was revealed. And along with the photo of Lee Young-jin, who was awkwardly pulling the corner of his mouth and clenching his neck.
“Hmm. Looks clean. These days, getting a US passport isn’t as tight as it used to be.”
Lee Young-jin tried to lick his parched mouth with his stiff tongue. No sound came out, as if his vocal cords were blocked. He just shook his head a couple of times like a sheep caught in a snare.
The man smiled as he flipped the passport around.
“Let’s see. A Korean with a fake American passport hacked into the Chinese banking system, which is quite a big deal. Isn’t it? Interpol would love it. Before that, the Chinese public security will come first.”
He burst into laughter as if hearing the most amusing joke. A pleasant laugh. And at some point the laughter stopped, like a thread breaking.
A suffocating silence fell.
The man took a step closer to Lee Young-jin, who was tied to the chair.
There wasn’t even the sound of his shoes hitting the floor.
Contrary to the soft smile on his lips, his eyes were cold. He stretched out his hand toward Lee Young-jin. Lee Young-jin held his breath. The tip of his index finger, rounded and neatly trimmed, tapped lightly on his cheek. It didn’t hurt but it was insulting. It was completely different from Ji Jung-hoon’s occassional rubbing on his cheek or rough stroking the top of his head. The suppressed will to resist rose slightly. Lee Young-jin just bit his lip and turned his head slightly to the side in an attempt to avoid the hand. At that feeble resistance, the man’s slender eyes made a strange smile.
“The situation has gotten pretty fucked up because of you motherfuckers.”
Those noble lips uttered a curse in a calm tone.
“How are you going to take responsibility, huh?”
In the current situation where the item was stolen and he was even taken prisoner, Lee Young-jin couldn’t figure out what responsibility he had to bear. Instead of asking, he looked up at the man with wet eyes.
At that moment, the man’s hand gripped his chin violently. The large palm that completely covered his small lower jaw to the bottom of his ear was powerful enough to crush his mandible. Lee Young-jin’s face contorted in pain. His brow narrowed and his lips pursed tightly. The tip of his nose and the bottom of his eyes became reddish, and the black pupils under the half-down eyelids became even more moist.
“You don’t know, but the situation right now is very fucked up.”
The man looked straight into Lee Young-jin’s eyes and said.
The sharp corner of his eyes slanted slightly downwards, drawing a round arc, but only the pupils inside were as cold as blocks of ice.
“Very. Very fucked up. Do you understand?”
Then, as if he was asking for an answer, he shook Lee Young-jin’s chin up and down. However, Lee Young-jin couldn’t even move his lips as the grip firmly held his lower jaw as if it would crush it.
Just when he thought his jaw would be shattered, the man’s hand fell off.
The man grinned.
“Well, you should have figured it out by now. Great. There’s one thing I need you to do.”
Lee Young-jin shook his head with wet eyes.
But the man didn’t care and continued.
“I’m basically a non-violent person. But that doesn’t mean I deny all violence as a means.”
“What…”
“I mean, if violence is an easy way to achieve a goal, I won’t go too far.”
The corners of his eyes creased as if they were sliding down. An eye smile appeared that seemed to have overturned a slender crescent moon.
“Let’s not waste each other’s time and effort. Yes?”
He shrugged.
“Shall we talk about your colleagues now? Of course, both are treated very humanely under the Geneva Conventions. For now.”
Meaningful words were added.
Lee Young-jin let out a gasping breath like a sob. His shoulders dropped and his gaze wandered helplessly around the man’s chest.
“…what do you want.”
“A little help.”
The man answered briefly with a smile on his face.
Suddenly, the door opened and people rushed in. Coercive hands grabbed Lee Young-jin’s limbs, tied them up and lifted him from the chair. A hood came in front of his eyes. He shook his head, but to no avail. The world went dark again.
Lee Young-jin was dragged somewhere like a piece of baggage again.
The hands that restrained his unresisting arms were brutal, and the bodies pressing on his shoulders from both sides were stiff. The pace was so fast that Lee Young-jin couldn’t keep up. He pushed his feet until he was out of breath, but eventually his feet stumbled and dragged on the floor.
He moved that way for about five minutes.
There was the sound of a door opening.
He was put somewhere.
His knees were thrown off balance and his upper body leaned forward. He fell flat on the floor like that. He collapsed on the hard floor, gasping for breath. A savage hand grabbed him by the back of his neck and pulled him up.
“Ugh!”
The hood was pulled upwards. Lee Young-jin let out a helpless moan at the pain as if his head was being pulled out as well. At least a few strands of hair must have been pulled out together.
While bobbing his head from side to side like an idiot at the wavering vision as if riding on a wave, the tip of a pointed shoe pricked his side. Lee Young-jin barely lifted his head.
It was a rectangular empty space. A dim light dimly illuminated the narrow room, perhaps only two and a half square meters in size. There were no windows. Immediately after, Lee Young-jin heard the familiar sound of vibration and heartbeat that was gently transmitted to his eardrum and heart. The sound of a circuit heart pounding in some huge high-tech machine. Oh. He let out a faint moan. It was clear to him that this was some sort of machine room, or at least something close to it.
Several monitors and laptops were placed on a long desk that occupied one wall of the room.
In front of him sat a haggard man, shriveled like a sun-dried tomato. He got up from his seat. Around mid-thirties. His face was pale and his expression wasn’t very good.
“You’re here.”
The gaze reached the man and then Lee Young-jin. Lee Young-jin looked at him shyly. The man’s expression twisted strangely. Why is he like that? However, before he could question, the man put a hand on his shoulder and turned Lee Young-jin towards a direction.
“Come here.”
With a natural command, a strong hand pressed against his shoulder.
Before he could take a few steps, he was in front of a desk.
“Would it be okay?”
Sundried tomato man asked the man.
“Let’s wait and see.”
Power went into the hands of the man who responded calmly. Lee Young-jin staggered to his feet as he was pushed and approached the laptop. Each screen on the three monitors caught his eye. Several programs with unfamiliar interfaces were running.
The man pressed on his shoulder. Lee Young-jin didn’t resist and sat down on the chair. Soon, the man approached his ear.
“This is what you’ll do.”
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